


What Could Have Been

by RubyLipsStarryEyes



Series: Nobody Really Wins a War [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Death, F/M, Grandson - Freeform, Loss, Orphans, Pain, Sorrow, daughter - Freeform, getting bad news, nobodywinsawar, s, son-in-law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21675454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RubyLipsStarryEyes/pseuds/RubyLipsStarryEyes
Relationships: Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Series: Nobody Really Wins a War [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1531745
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	What Could Have Been

“I’ll do anything!” Andromeda wailed. “Not my baby!” 

Ted pulled her closer, his shock rendering him silent. Not his little girl, and her husband too. Not them. 

He remembered when Dora got her Hogwarts letter, when she was sorted, when she passed her OWLs and NEWTs. He remembered the day she’d come home, her hair waist-length and baby pink when she told them proudly she’d been accepted to the Auror programme. Dora had taken to shorter hair, after training; she said it was easier, but it became an increasingly vibrant shade of pink. 

Until he came into her life. It had been small changes at first; she simply looked tired, or her transformations took a few heartbeats longer. Then her vibrant magenta hair faded to brown, and she looked thin and gaunt. Most contributed it to the War and the coup at the ministry.

But Ted knew better. Ted knew his baby girl. Ted saw the sparkle in her eye when she spoke about him, the subtle flush across her cheeks when he spoke to her. Ted was the first one she’d finally admitted it to. 

“I love him, Daddy. I love Remus.” 

He’d given her a cup of tea, and let her talk. She talked about his sharp wit, his love of chocolate, and his brilliant mind. She smiled to herself in a way that told him this was more than her fleeting adolescent crushes of her school days. 

He hadn’t been sure the older man had been a good match for his baby girl, but he’d watched carefully the next time they’d had a meeting. 

Remus’s robes were shabby and he had dark circles under his eyes, but Ted hadn’t cared so much about his appearance. He cared much more to know that Remus’s tawny eyes didn’t miss much, and he’d given Dora a grateful smile, his eyes lighting up when she slid a cup of cocoa to him instead of the tea everyone else was having. He was level-headed, and obviously thought through his arguments before speaking. By the end of the evening, he thought he understood. 

Not how she came to love him, or why he was spurning her advances, but how she could love him; more importantly he thought that the man was the counterbalance that his sometimes wild daughter needed. 

She’d brought him home two months later, her hair bubblegum pink once more. She dragged him through Andromeda’s spotless kitchen, one of the biggest smiles he’d ever seen on her face. Snow melted from their cloaks into puddles on the pristine floor, and was then flung over the cupboards when Dora had thrown her arms around Remus. The wizard had gone pink, attempting and failing to suppress a smile at her enthusiasm. 

Ted shook his hand, and later quietly wished him luck. Remus grinned, and Ted got a glimpse of what Remus might have been if it hadn’t been for Greyback’s bite or the loss of his closest friends at such a tender age. He looked… vibrant; happy and at ease. Dora did that for him. 

That glimpse was the man Ted thought of now. The man who loved his daughter fiercely until his dying breath. The man who fathered the baby that was sleeping soundly, no idea that his life had just been altered forever. The man that lived though each month was excruciating. The man that fought a war that had claimed all those he’d held dear. The man who’s entire life had been stolen.

Ted mourned for his daughter, for his wife, and for his grandson. But most of all, he mourned for what could have been for Remus Lupin.


End file.
